Jalen: I was, I think, three years old when I first went on the computer. ^MUI was five when I got my Game Boy, used to play that every day. It was just so fun, so I equally use my Game Boy and my computer, so I get an hour to play each so that I would do basketball during the time that I wasn't doing technology. And when during the times I wasn't doing anything I would just lay down and chill.

Zoey. Zoey.

At seven years old, that's really when I started drawing a lot. I like it. It's fun, and the people compliment on my drawings, so I think that's kind of fun. And then at 10 years old, when I went to 5th grade, I made my first comic book. And after that I went into sixth grade, and that's when I got my laptop, and then I started using that more often. I joined the DYM program.

Akili Lee: If you know your account, pull it up on your laptop.

The Digital Youth Network was really trying to look to see how now the students are really inundated with all this new technology. How does that impact how kids socialize, and then how does that, in turn, impact how they learn as well?

There's a project called "Editing Project 1." Everybody got that?

The kid can come in and they can do digital music production, graphic design and animation, game design or digital video production.

Why do they go slow motion? Why were they going slow motion, though?

Akili Lee: The kids on their own are jumping across from all these different mediums, so we really need to kind of explore all of them as well and try to support kids to become better producers and consumers, and critique is within all these different pieces.

So Remix World is kind of like MySpace, kind of like Facebook mixed with a little bit of YouTube as well, so you can go on there. You can post your own videos that y'all make. You can post the music that you're making. I saw that you were remixing a song online already.

I did.

Akili Lee: Remix World is a contained social-networking site that's only open to our students and our mentors.

So the rest of the kids in the school can actually see what you guys are doing, and you can also go in and you can comment and critique on what everybody else has done.

So, the idea is that students for us are already spending all of their time on all these different social-networking communities around the Web. Why can't we re-appropriate those kind of tools and then there's more formal educational context?

Jalen: I post up videos, poems and just whatever I thought was, like -- that my opinion was it was cool. I would post up on the Remix World to see what other people thought. Sometimes on YouTube I get worse feedback than the Remix World. Well, I'm okay with that, though, because I know there's a lot of people on YouTube that're better than me at what I do, because they've been doing it longer and they know how to do it better. I accept that and I'll try harder to make mine just as good as theirs.

That's one of the shoes I've created. First I just took a layout of the normal Nike Dunkers just plain white, and after I add in colors and different, like, images. When I created this shoe I was thinking of Halloween, so I put in some 3D pumpkins almost all across the front of the shoe.

Scoop: Have your seat. Do your thing. Sit back and get out of your way.

Jalen has always been creative, always, and he did that. In his mind kind of thinks a little different. He's very open, and to see him fall into something that can connect with where his mind goes sometimes and be able to have him do something tangible, it's amazing to see that.

Jalen: "A Division to Our Own" was a movie that we made in the summer. I enjoyed it. I was a graphic artist, so technically what I did was I created all the posters.

I decided to use fingerprints, because that's your identity, and I put them in different colors for different races like that.

You can sit wherever you'd like.

Jalen: The movie was technically about a class, which was in Room 201, and how races were segregated and that they then discussed about racism.

At the top it says "what divides us," so they're all divided apart, and that there on the bottom, it says "what unites us" and then they're all in one circle.

Tracy: It feeds into his academics. He's reading. He's learning and he's figuring out how to incorporate all of the technology into that. And I think it's teaching him different ways to think about things and to figure out problems, so I see him becoming even a better student as a result.

Jalen: Sometimes we have assignments like book reports and stuff, so what I usually elect to do for my book report is make a comic, where I have, like, little squares where I could put, like, some pictures in there and have the speech bubble coming out and it says, "Hi. This is a book report from Jalen Jackson," yadda, yadda, yadda, all that stuff that you need in the book report. And sometimes we have to do PowerPoints. Sometimes we do games, all that stuff.

Akili Lee: Jaden has been in video games for a couple of years now, so last year they were using a tool called Scratch.

Jalen: Scratch is a program where you kind of make your own characters, and after that you edit their actions so that they could probably, like, run maybe or anything.

Akili Lee: Then all you got to do is tell the program that when I press left or something that I want it to do the walking animation.

Jalen: Yes, and after that I put it into my game.

Akili Lee: Jalen is typical in the sense that I think he embraces exploration, but I think he's a little bit more unique in the sense that he takes it a step further on his own very often, so he decides that he likes anime, but now on his own he decided that he was going to learn how to create an anime music video.

Jalen: The idea was cut up different clips. Then I pick a really good song that I think will go good with the clips, and I thought I'd just put it all together.

Scoop: He's really into this, and me sitting there literally creating a video, a music video. First four or five hours and he have a three-minute video together. Six months later, four or five hours he'd had four or five, four videos together, so it was like, wow. And he's very, very, very passionate about it.

What's television class going to be like, Jalen?

Jalen: I think we're recording this week.

I need some sort of outline what you guys are going to do on your show.

Jalen: They want us to be able to make a movie using all those skills of writing. They want it to have a good storyline.

So president [ lesson ].

Jalen: They want it to have a certain amount of vocabulary that'll be appropriate for a seventh-grade level, and they want it to be at least something that would be interesting to watch.

Right now I'm editing the clips shorter so that it kind of looks more like a movie and not just like pictures just floating out of the air. So I'm going to see how that works out first. [ Laughs ] The stuff goes faster as I [ inaudible ].

Tracy: Jalen's a silly… …12-year-old.

Scoop: And he's proud of being silly.

Jalen: Shut up. Give me my game.

Tracy: And he likes being silly.

Scoop: He likes being silly.

Jalen: [ inaudible ] our show too.

No, he doesn't.

Jalen: No, he does.

Tracy: He always has an idea, always has an answer. If I say, "Jay, can you not do that?" it's always a good reason for why it should be done. So, I mean, he's a typical 12-year-old.

Jalen: Thirty minutes. So, now I am eligible to play video games.

What I want to do when I grow up is I want to be a cartoonist and a video game maker and artist. Technically they all come together, though. So, I think that this -- all of this graphic design, gaming, all of this stuff that I do will contribute to my cartooning and gaming one day, all these technology programs that I do.

You are welcome to embed this video, download it for personal use, or use it in a presentation for a conference, class, workshop, or free online course, so long as a prominent credit or link back to Edutopia is included. If you'd like more detailed information about Edutopia's allowed usages, please see the Licenses section of our Terms of Use.

4. How would you describe the attitude of Jalen's parents about their son's passion for digital media?

5. What skills does Jalen practice or learn through his movie and animation projects? How can projects like this impact the lives of kids?

Digital Youth Q&A: Jalen

My name is Jalen, and I live in Illinois. In the Digital Youth Network program, I do graphic design, video gaming, and robotics. I am doing DYN TV, in which we make our own little TV show. And I'm learning photography this year. So I think I have advanced throughout the years in my use of technology and in my use of creating through technology.

Edutopia.org: What was the first piece of technology you had, and why did you like it?

Jalen: I used to play on our family PC when I was a kid. I used to always play on that, so that was probably the first piece of technology I ever used. I think I was three years old when I first went on the computer. I used to like to use the computer to paint stuff in, and I would pull stuff off the Internet to remix it and paint it.

After my first time using technology, I started using it more often. I started using the family PC almost once a week. By that time, I had a Game Boy. My mom said she was going to give me one after I took a shower when I was a little kid, so after I took it, I got my Game Boy. I used to play that a lot. And I couldn't get any other systems but those handhelds, because my mom said I'd become addicted to the other systems, which I did. Well, I used to be.

I was five when I got my Game Boy. I used to play that every day. It was so fun. And after a while, I started getting back on the computer. So I used my Game Boy and my computer equally. I'd spend an hour on each. I would do basketball during the time when I wasn't doing that. And then during the time that I wasn't doing anything, I would just lay down and chill. When my mom says I can't play video games, I just lay down and watch TV. That's technically what "chill time" is, watching TV.

At seven years old, I started drawing more. That's when I really started drawing a lot. And I thought I was really good at it. I still do it, because I like it. It's fun. If people compliment my drawings, I think that's kind of fun.

At ten years old, when I went to fifth grade, I made my first comic book. I don't have that any more, but it was really cool. It was called Kindred Kids. It revolved around me and my friends getting superpowers and then fighting crime and stuff. So I really liked that. It was fun.

After that, I went into sixth grade, and that's when I got my laptop, and I started using that more often. I joined the Digital Youth Network program. The first class I had in the DYN program was probably graphic design, because I missed my first day of robotics. So I went to graphic design, and my teacher's name was Hando. The first thing he taught us to do was design shoes, shirts, and caps.

Throughout a three-month period, we were remixing our own shoes and our shirts and caps and making them match. Sometimes we made shoes, shirts, and caps that represented something. I remember that I made a whole collection of shoes, shirts, and caps for Donda West when she passed away.

Now that you are in seventh grade, what do you do?

I’m in seventh grade, and in DYN I technically do the same classes. I do graphic design, but now we have a new teacher named Ms. Erica. I do video gaming. I do robotics still. I think they're all pretty fun. But last year, I did spoken word, in which I learned how to do poetry, which I liked, too.

But this year, I am doing DYN TV, in which we make our own little TV show. So I think they’re all equally fun when I level everything out. And I'm learning photography this year. So I think I have advanced throughout the years in my use of technology and in my use of creating through technology.

In class, we have assignments such as book reports. So what I usually like to do for my book reports is make a comic. I have it on my computer, and I have little squares where I can put some pictures and have the speech bubble coming out where it says, "Hi, this is a book report from Jalen, yadda yadda yadda." It has all the stuff that you need in a book report. And then in the comic, they talk about the book. Usually, at the beginning of the book report, I have the cover of the book, and I have my name under it.

Also, sometimes our teachers lead us, and sometimes we have to do PowerPoint presentations. This time, my friend Monchor and I are doing a game board, like Monopoly, for our final project on the book that we just read.

And that kind of reflects my graphic-design work and my gaming work, because I know what needs to go inside a game to make it awesome and be big so it will be bought more, make more money, all that stuff. I know how to design a board game, which makes it even better, so it won't be all dull and boring.

Do you mostly work on the computer, or play video games?

I try and level them out equally so that I can have the same amount of fun on my laptop as I have playing my Wii. That way, I can be online and talk with my friends, but sometimes I can play games and be by myself. I try to level them out equally so that I can have the same amount of time learning about the Internet or the computer as I have learning about playing video games. Every time I get on my laptop or play a video game, I learn something new.

Do you have a cell phone?

No. My mom said I cannot have a cell phone until I'm in high school. She asks me, "Why do you need one?" I say, "Because I want one." And she says, "Why do you need one?" I say, "Because all my friends have one, and I need to talk with you and Rakim and dad." I have an iPod. I’m trying to get a new one, because I have a really old one.

What's the Digital Youth Network like? Talk about that program.

DYN is just one of the awesome-est, sickest programs ever. It picks out all these awesome, sick programs, from gaming all the way to poetry. It has at least ten programs that you can do, and it lets you choose. You come to classes on certain days to do those programs. Every Friday, we have something called Freedom Friday. We sometimes talk about topics that need to be talked about around the world, such as global warming.

Two weeks ago, we had something about McDonald's, and they showed the movie Super Size Me. It showed how that food can be unhealthy for you. Sometimes, they have showcases where they show off the work that kids in the program did before. Last year, when they first got the DYN center, we had this giant showcase and we had this giant DYN party.

What is Remix World?

Remix World is a DYN site where you post up all your work or have a discussion about what you think is really important. You get feedback on what you do, and you get Remix Dollars if it's important or if it's something original.

So, right now, I am the leader in Remix Dollars on the old Remix World. They said they're going to transfer it to the new one, but I'm starting to get worried about that. I became the leader on the old Remix World because last year I did a lot of work on making shoes and making videos. I still jump into a lot of discussions now and then. I used to post up all my poems. I used to do everything. Whatever I did that I thought was cool, I'd post it up on Remix World to see what other people thought.

What is it like to have your peers critique your work?

Well, you give your opinion and you say if you agree or disagree with them, usually. That's what I usually do. It's also how I usually comment on games or movies or art. I usually say what I feel, if I like it or think it's pretty good. Most of the art that they put up, most of the things that they put up are pretty cool.

I think that mostly everybody in this school has something that they've put up on the Remix World site that everybody will like, probably because it's really good and it can connect with anybody. Usually, once I make something, I just put it up on Remix World before I show it to the whole world. I just put it up on Remix World because it is a closed space for people in DYN.

Yeah, I put my stuff up on YouTube. Sometimes on YouTube, I get worse feedback than I do on Remix World. I'm OK with that, because I know there are a lot of people on YouTube that are better than me at what I do because they’ve been doing it longer and they know how to do it better. I accept that, and I try harder to make my work as good as theirs. So, usually, if they give me five stars on Remix World, I get four stars on YouTube.

On YouTube, I usually just put up my videos -- for instance, TV-show clips. I put music under it, and I just cut it up and make it into a cool video. I'm learning how to make cartoons this year so I can make an animated cartoon show or a short.

Do you have friends that don't have this stuff at school or at home?

My neighbor comes over to our house every day. Sometimes he gets annoying, but he always comes over. He comes into the house, and he jumps on the computer and starts making videos all day. And if he's not making videos, we're either playing with our dog or playing video games. So, if he's sleeping over for a whole day, we'll take half of that day to play video games, 25 percent to go outside, and 25 percent just to make videos. But all around, it's just fun.

I'm just wondering if some of your friends in other schools don't have the access you have to technology.

My neighbor doesn't have the access to it, and so he comes to our house. My cousin comes over. He doesn't come over too much, but he doesn't have that much access to any computer or anything, so he doesn’t really know how to do that much. And my brother just got his computer, so he's just learning how to do this stuff, too.

Tell me about a typical day. When do you get up, and what do you do?

I wake up . . . well, I don't really wake up. My mom wakes me up. I put on some of my clothes and go back to sleep. Mom wakes me up again. I brush my teeth, put on my shoes, go downstairs, get my book bag, go to the car, go back to sleep. I nap. Then we end up at the school. They send me in. I'm usually late. I come into the school and go to math class. That's the class we have every morning.

After math, we usually have literacy or science. And then on Wednesdays, after literacy, we have DYN with Miss Asia. We do storyboards. Right now, we're making a trailer for the book that we just finished reading. At the end of the day, at 2:45, I come down here and go to DYN class.

One time in Design, we came into this room and we learned how to do cartooning a little bit. For gaming, we usually go upstairs. They have two different classes: One is to learn how to use the program Flash, which is like a cartoon-animation program. The other one is to learn Scratch, which is what I learned last year. It's kind of like a gaming program. I get picked up at 6 o'clock.

I go home and do my homework. After I finish my homework, we usually have dinner. Now that it's around Christmastime, my mom makes things that she can sell for Christmas. She asks me and my brother if we want to help because we can make a profit, and we take that offer. Any way we can get money, we take it.

So, after we do that, I usually ask my mom if I can play a video game. She says I have to finish my homework and be done with everything. After that, she tells me to read. I read for like 45 minutes, then I go play the game. I play video games from 7:30 to probably 10, and after that, my dad tells us to get in bed. After we do that, I lay down in my bed and, five minutes later, I'm almost asleep. Then my dad comes up and brings us tea. We drink it and go back to sleep. We usually get to sleep around 11:30. That's the daily life of Jalen.

What games do you play? What’s cool these days?

Well, I won't say they're cool these days. These are just the types of games that I like. One of the most recent games that I've been playing, because I just got, it is the new Dragonball Z game called Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World. I've been playing that since Friday. That's when we first got it.

We play Super Smash Bros. on the Wii. It’s fun. It's a different type of game because with Dragonball Z, it's kind of like you have to knock them out. On Super Smash Bros., you have to hit them out of the ring, so it's a lot more fun. And I play Spider-Man games, and I play Star Wars games sometimes.

What's your favorite book?

My favorite book right now is Percy Jackson and the Olympians. I like the whole series, but my favorite book out of all four is The Battle of the Labyrinth. That's the most recent one. It's really good.

What's your favorite movie?

That’s a difficult question. I have two favorite movies, actually. I like Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, which just came out in September, and I like the Transformers movie that came out last year.

How about music? What's on your iPod?

I like rap and rock music. I like Linkin Park and Tia sometimes. It depends on how I feel.

With all this technology that you're working with now, what do you see yourself doing with it in the future?

Well, when I grow up, I want to be a cartoonist and a video game maker and an artist. Technically, they all come together, though. So that's what I want to do when I grow up. I think that this -- all this graphic design, gaming, all of this stuff that I do -- will contribute to my cartooning and gaming one day.

I love your work, in all of the media. I like how you see illustration, video, design, art, remixing, music and storytelling as all different parts of the same whole.

Where do you go to get ideas for your work? As a teacher, I'm curious. For example in the anime music videos, do you watch a lot of what other people have made online at YouTube? Do you get ideas from your friends at school or home? Or from your teachers?

a.) In this video all of the four perspectives are evident; Motivation, Enhanced instructional methods, increased productivity, and Required information age skills.

b.) Technology is being used in the video because it documents the work of a young digital media artist. The video documents how a twelve year olds passion for art and gaming grew into a learning opportunity. Jalen makes digitally animated films and video games .

Jalen is in seventh grade. In the video Jalen gives his background and talks about his passions for gaming and digital animation. He has clearly been captivated by digital imagery for most of his life and is now creating digital animation and video games with his drawings. Jalen's teacher is also interviewed in the video as are his parents. His teacher talks about Jalen's high level of motivation and passion for improving his skills and knowledge. Jalen is highly motivated and very talented. Jalen strive to learn new ways to integrate his art and technology. His parents talk about making sure that Jalen has a balance in his life between his interest in technology and the physical world, they are clearly proud of his accomplishments. As a parent of teens who spend endless hours computing I understand their concerns for Jalen.

a.) In this video all of the four perspectives are evident; Motivation, Enhanced instructional methods, increased productivity, and Required information age skills.

b.) Technology is being used in the video because it documents the work of a young digital media artist. The video documents how a twelve year olds passion for art and gaming grew into a learning opportunity. Jalen makes digitally animated films and video games .

Jalen is in seventh grade. In the video Jalen gives his background and talks about his passions for gaming and digital animation. He has clearly been captivated by digital imagery for most of his life and is now creating digital animation and video games with his drawings. Jalen's teacher is also interviewed in the video as are his parents. His teacher talks about Jalen's high level of motivation and passion for improving his skills and knowledge. Jalen is highly motivated and very talented. Jalen strive to learn new ways to integrate his art and technology. His parents talk about making sure that Jalen has a balance in his life between his interest in technology and the physical world, they are clearly proud of his accomplishments. As a parent of teens who spend endless hours computing I understand their concerns for Jalen.

Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology K-8 grade school in Detroit is interested in partnering to include Digital Media in our Middle School. Please contact us.
928-824-9245 or 310- 720-2393 wsparkerjrinc1@mac.com

Thanks for commenting on our video about Jalen. The digital media program you see in the video is called the Digital Youth Network, based in Chicago, and they can be contacted through their Web site, http://iremix.org

I could not find it anywhere. Oh until I went and looked on my other blog!!!! 21st Century Homeschooling! Yup I think I might stick to creating wonderful places of learning for students and parents who find themselves struggling with learning in the home.

I was very impressed with the video done on Jalen, a 7th grader. At twelve years old, he is more versed in media design and technology use than I as a Instructional Design & Technology adult learner. Jalen displays a comfort level and interset that has inspired me. I guess he is a perfect example of students of the era of technology and what happens when you engage your child at a young age - he's been using computers since age three. I applaud his parents for giving Jalen the jumping board to excelerate to this level - It is clear that he has desire and drive that can take him further into the world of media creation.

His imagination is awesome. Digital media enables him to create a variety of designs on his shoes, and to create posters.
Although he is not a typical student, digital media enables children to develop their unique talents. In this sense, using digital media in lower grade is beneficial to children.

He has awesome talent. Although he is gifted child, digital media has potentials which enables children to develop their unique talent. In this sense, using digital media in lower grade level is beneficial for children.